God-stuff for normal people. Trigger warning for the self-righteous, the proud, and the religious.
Saturday, March 18, 2023
Convincing Convictions: Worshiping Like You're At The Footy
Friday, March 3, 2023
DIY-gods, Voltaire, & Snapchat
DIY-gods, Voltaire, & Snapchat
Students grudgingly formed into groups and began to quip about the question like cats toying with a mouse. Soon though, it became apparent that this mouse had teeth. Disagreements arose, voices grew more passionate, tails lashed. Some sat back mystified, doubt crept in.
The question is harder to answer to than you might think.
The god-who-loves-everyone-and-there’s-no-such-thing-as-hell type god began to look less attractive in the light of Hitler and child slavery.
On the other hand, the wrathful-ruling-autocrat-with-armies-of-righteousness type god began to look less attractive in the light of one’s friends and relatives who had not grasped the message of Christ.
If you could create your own god what would he/she/it be like?
After all, our culture is one step ahead.
The god-who-affirms-all-your-feelings-and-impulses is currently on the throne of our secular society, lavishing absolute affirmation on its worshipers (you do you) and absolute damnation and contempt on everyone else (you’re cancelled!)
With or against. Total affirmation or total damnation.
And the Christian community wonders where they got such an idea.
We even do it on an intra-Christian basis.
I mean, have you ever actually listened to one of those my-way-or-the-highway-type Christians? The sort who sets themselves up as an absolute authority on everything Biblical and then hails anyone who sees things differently as a – ahem – heretic? (The fact they use the word is not only embarrassing for the rest of us but speaks volumes about their own worldview).
I don’t really blame them though, it’s human instinct.
When the disciples saw someone healing in Jesus’ name who wasn’t part of their group they wanted to fry the dude with fire-balls from heaven. Jesus waved off their concern: if they’re not against us, they’re for us.
It seems that Jesus was a whole lot less concerned about the exact nature of their ministry than many Christians are today. Or maybe Jesus just wasn’t Reformed enough (with a capital R). Maybe he should’ve rained the fire-balls.
I must admit this is the kind of god I argued for in class that day: one who would just decisively do the job on the spot and get it all wrapped up. No loose ends. Job done.
I quickly saw that my DIY god would be about as successful as any other DIY project I’ve ever tried (just ask my wife)!
My guess is that I would make a terrible god, and that the real one probably knows better than me.
But I still grapple with the Ascension. Why play the first two sets of a gig – the most difficult ones – then not come back for the third one when the audience is primed and ready to go?
Jesus must have his reason for his (thus far) 2,000 year set break, hanging in the green-room with God the Father, sending the Holy Spirit to give us a hand while we flounder away on stage making our idols.
I mean, when Jesus was in his resurrected form in first-century Jerusalem, why didn't he forego the next couple of millennia of human misery, hang around a while longer, and just close shop? Send out some of first century AD Snapchat about what was happening, give everyone the chance the see and respond (before the picture disappears) then do a quick head count and sort out the sheep and goats right then and there? New creation. Sin eradicated. A glorious new world.
I can't claim to have the answer, and I'd be wary of someone who reckons they do.
I'll hazard a few guesses nonetheless:
- I guess it’s got something to do with grace (2 Tim 1:9).
- I guess it’s got something to do with the joy that exists amidst the misery (Rom 5:1-5).
- I guess it's got something to do with the tares among the wheat (Mat 13:24-30).
- I guess it’s got something to do with not wanting to override our free will (Mark 8:34).
- I guess it’s got something to do with his love and his will that not one would perish (2 Pet 3:9).
- I guess it’s got something to with the true nature of love—not as blindly affirming but as wholly redeeming (1 Cor 6.
So on the nature of God and his plans, as with the nature of breathing air, I suspect that understanding matters less than simply accepting, seeking, and getting with the task he's set before us.
The Bible is God's revelation to us of his character and plans.
Everything we need to know.
We need to start reading it more and creating God in our image less.
After all, he’s God we’re not.